You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
In a valley on the road to Wtnterthur, Switzerland, lies the insignificant hamlet of Wildisbuch. Here, at the beginning of the last century, in an isolated farmhouse, lived John Peter, widower, with several children. His only son, Casper, married in 1812, and, after being blessed with five daughters, was divorced from his wife. Barbara, a daughter of John Peter, was married to a blacksmith in Triillikon. The other daughters were Susanna, Elizabeth, Magdalena (married to John Moser, a shoemaker), and Margaret, born in 1794, the youngest and favorite child.
It may be well to remember in what follows that intellectual precocity is a frequent accompaniment and perhaps a symptom of premature sexual awakening. Margaret was a precocious infant, who at six was able to read her Bible, and would summon the family about her to listen to her lectures out of the “sacred volume” and would pray and exhort with great ardor. Her purposeless family, her intellectual superiority and certain mystical circumstances contributed to her mastery. To her simple